Argonne National Lab researching links between weather in Chicago and the Arctic
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It was colder at times this week in Chicago than it was in the Arctic, and the connection goes beyond the comparison.
Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in southwest suburban Lemont are taking a close look at how that Arctic weather is impacting weather in the Chicago area, and how climate change plays a role.
Instruments at Argonne aren't just gathering information about local weather, but the connection to weather more than 3,000 miles away at a site in Alaska, with the weather there making an impact in the Chicago area.
"What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic," said atmospheric scientist Scott Collis.
His team with the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory is looking closely at data from a site more than 3,000 miles away to better understand the cold outbreaks like this week's.
"You could actually draw a straight line from Chicago all the way up to the Arctic, and that was that straight line that the air mass actually traveled on," Collins said.
The team collects data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement facility in Alaska.
"You could go all the way up to Alaska, and it would get warmer, not colder than here in Chicago on Monday," he said. "The kind of data that we're collecting that we're really using to improve weather models to help us improve the predictability over Chicago."
Ultimately, using these measurements and data in research will lead to best practices and solutions to implement in the Chicago area as scientists track a changing climate, thanks to a federally funded $25 million program called Community Research on Climate and Urban Science, or CROCUS.
"This allows us to provide data to city planners, to agencies," Collins said. "What do they need to prepare for for the future?"
All of this makes Chicago's Arctic connection stronger than the temperature comparison we saw and felt this week.
